Analysis of the Romani language has shown that it is closely related to those spoken in central and northern India, Pothwari in particular. This linguistic relationship is believed to indicate the Roma's and Sinti's geographical origin. Loanwords in Romani make it possible to trace the pattern of their migration westwards.

The following table shows the distribution of Romani speakers in Europe according to Bakker et al. (2000) [1]. The last column shows the percentage of Romani speakers in the Roma population in each country.